danon

I had my DNA checked long time ago , the results said “ 52% Mediterranean.”
that includes 22 countries 😁

bilboburgler

One of the Uk journalists sent his DNA for testing, but to a dog DNA company, turned out he was mainly Yorkshire Terrier. I suspect the science is mainly nonsense.

CounterClifton

My parents' families were all German descendants. One of those rural enclaves in the middle US where a group of immigrant farmers moved to 150 years ago and then just kept speaking German for the next several generations. WW2 eventually broke them of that habit and their kids, my parent's generation, got public schools with teachers from out of town where they learned English and found out they were pronouncing their surnames incorrectly

I've never been to Germany myself but when we were in Romania, people kept trying to speak German to me

Traveler_Nick

Have you listened to the average UK journalist? Terrier sounds about right

bvlenci

Some of the pet DNA companies may be sketchy. The main human DNA companies are quite reliable and are getting progressively more accurate as they get more data.

bilboburgler

You may be right, but if we take one tribe. The Saxons, who came out of Asia, spent time in what is now Germany, invaded England before being thrown out by the Normans and moved to Istanbul before the arrival of the Turks, fled to Italy and finally end up in America.

DNA may have better numbers but the mess of humanity is too complicated for the digital research.

AlessandraZoe

bvlenci,

I totally agree with your description of DNA advancement. It is dizzying the information we now can get. We can even find out if our roots are more Neanderthal or Denisovan. My one son-in-law, a doctor, is really into the medical implications of Neanderthal ancestry. Don't ask me what they are--I just nod my head when he discusses those, pretending I understand or even care.

I'd say ten years ago, ancestral DNA data only provided me with general geographic information. But as more people have submitted DNA from more countries, the feedback has become so much more geographically precise in terms of "Your DNA is found in common with people who live (or lived!) [here]", sometimes within 25-50 miles.

For example, for me, what was once listed only as a significant amount of "England and Northwestern Europe" DNA was greatly specified a few years ago. And just last year, one of the new sub-categories, "North-West England and Northern Wales", was further refined into two DNA subgroups: "Liverpool, Manchester, and Preston" and "Southwestern Lancashire, Eastern Merseyside, and Western Greater Manchester." That fits my paternal grandfather's line to a "T".

Closer to home, from my mother's side, my DNA is part of some quite distinct pre-Revolutionary and post-Revolutionary War American DNA communities, especially in terms of geography and history. Family document research is proving those DNA assumptions to be correct. The latest DNA algorithms can show the geographic areas where historical waves of specific US settlers not only tended settle but also later to move, too. Depending on which branch of the family I'm looking at, those reports are surprisingly on the mark.

I was greatly intrigued years ago by some pre-2000 landmark British studies seeking to determine the Anglo-Saxon and European ancestries of areas throughout the UK. The researchers chose test subjects whose families had been in areas for generations. In doing so, areas that were once assumed to be homogeneous (Wales) or blurred (Devon/Cornwall) were found to have rather distinct DNA geographic lines, lines that of course were fast disappearing with a more mobile society. Fun fact according to one study: the area of Britain that has the most "BRITISH" (as opposed to European) DNA is Yorkshire.

bvlenci

I don't know how long ago your friend made this observation. These days almost everyone's watches, shoes, and clothing come from a few countries in East Asia. Where would you place the origin of a person wearing a Samsung watch? It could be anywhere on the earth. Or Nike shoes (which apparently every young Italian wears, in gleaming white). I can still usually spot an American from the haircut.

bvlenci

Wow, Bilbo! A masterpiece of concentrated erroneous history! Doggy DNA analysis couldn't be farther off the mark than this!!

bilboburgler

Are you saying that the Saxon Karls or Carls who tried to protect Constantinople 145? from its sacking by the (Mainly) Norman clans during the 4th crusade had not moved there after their loss of England to the Normans in 1066?

Or was it something else?

On the other hand I am aware that the Romans ordered one tribe to never move south of Watling street in England and despite mass invasions of Anglos, Saxons, Jutes, Norse, Normans, The Harrying of the North, Industrialisation, the Black Death, a Civil war or two, the growth of sheep farming, Enclosures of common land etc etc some people think (LOL) that they never did.

bvlenci

I hardly know where to begin, Bilbo.

Maybe you're confusing the defence of Constantinople with the Sack of Constantinople during the 4th Crusade? I think maybe some Saxons participated in that. The only western Europeans who tried to defend Constantinople from Mehmed were, ahem!!, Italians. Maybe their DNA was 14% Saxon.

AlessandraZoe

Well, shiver me timbers! I said I was out of this discussion (one I actually started) because my kids said they knew my doppelgangers. I didn't quite see it that way, but they are smart kids, so...

My husband and I just returned from touring four cities in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. I can now verify my face country isn't just one: It is a blend of peeps from Denmark and Norway.

In Copenhagen, I kept turning my head everywhere when I thought I caught a glimpse of a cousin, or my mother, or...MYSELF. This has never happened to me, and it was rather scary.

On the Norway-in-a-Nutshell portion of our trip, I'd see other people look at me recognizing themselves in MY face. Whoa.

Once we got to Stockholm, it stopped happening and I could chill.

For the DNA specialists among the above posters, my mother, not my father, had the Scandinavian ancestry. It was only around 11-15% among all three countries, but every percentage must have shown up in her face because I saw her everywhere.

She loved reading Nordic Noir, and she would have been so happy to know this.

HappyTrvlr

A French guide knew I was French! Well I do have some French genes but more from several other European countries.